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Maximum irony in action: Why animal results may be more reliable for healthy humans than clinical trial results

A healthy human is well-nourished, just like laboratory animals, and unlike humans who are enrolled in clinical trials, who have been sick for years before enrollment. Most are past the point of reversibility of the illness. How can doctors hope to normalize the health of a diabetic who has had extensive kidney damage and damage to his circulatory system from the high sugar and the numerous nutrient deficiencies due to over-diuresis coupled with poor reabsorption of nutrients? Surgeons can some cure the diabetes even in long-term sufferers with Roux-N-Y gastric bypass, but doctors cannot subsequently normalize their health. The bodily injuries are too great. Laboratory animals are given diabetes and then immediately treated to try to reverse the diabetes and to prevent the harmful effects of diabetes.

When a clinical trial shows that a high dose of some essential nutrient is useless, when it worked well in laboratory animals (for example high dose vitamin C in guinea pigs prevented atherosclerosis even on a 55% fat diet), take the clinical trial with a grain of salt, because despite huge genetic differences, healthy, well-nourished humans are more like healthy, well-nourished laboratory animals.

One more similarity between lab animals and healthy humans: they have the discipline to do what needs to be done in spite of pain and discomfort. The lab animals have no choice but to follow tough regimens imposed by tough-minded, focused researchers; healthy humans are already tough on themselves. Those who are unhealthy – when it is not genetic – have mollycoddled themselves to greater weakness. Clinical trial results on these weaklings mean little: if there is the slightest discomfort to the procedure, you can be sure they are cheating to avoid discomfort.